The video offers three minutes worth of excerpts from a 2004 interview with former Detroit Lions defensive lineman Alex Karras, who died Wednesday at 77. What's amazing to me is how stark and clear he was on a concussion issue that only recently has become a major source of public debate.

"I've seen a lot of us, us characters, in the last five years, and a lot of them are not in good shape," Karras said, speaking of the period between 1999-04. "A lot of them have very bad problems with their heads, the concussions they've had. Some of them have lost their sight. Some of them have lost their memories. It's not a good thing to finally find out what's going on with the older professional football players that played for a long time."

Sadly, Karras experienced his own set of mental issues late in life. He had been suffering from dementia, among other health ailments, in recent years.